news's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- database problem caused some blank diaires Erk, there was just a dumb database problem and if you updated your diary during a certain timespan (I think about 10 or 15 minutes basically), your index page may hav gone blank. I am running a program now to fix them up, but it will take a while, so if yours isn't fixed yet, just add a new entry and then delete it, and that oughta do it! Sorry about that! By Andrew Smales. 4:23 p.m. - Jun. 13, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- intermittent network problems fixed Hi! Just so you know, if you were having any problems getting to the site this afternoon, they should be gone now. A different server at the same networking place DiaryLand is at was under a denial of service attack that was messing up the network, but it looks like they've got that all fixed up now, and it shouldn't have affected everyone anyhow. So yeah, that's all, just wanted to put a quick update in for that. While I have this open though, when was the last time you told someone they should use DiaryLand? Well why not today, go tell all your friends! By Andrew Smales. 3:02 p.m. - Jun. 13, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- small re-organization in the members area Just a quick note to say that I redesigned the left hand sidebar in the members area just a teeny tiny bit, and linked an FAQ section that is small now but which I hope to grow very soon. If you want to change your template, the 2 previous links (one to get a pre-set template and one to change your html manually) have been combined into one "change your template" link. Also I added a bit of a timesaver to the site: When you add an entry now, let's say you want to write a certain username (let's use andrew as an example) in a sentence, like "I just visited andrew's diary". Well now, if you want, you can use he following shortcut to make that name show up and be linked to andrew.diaryland.com: "I just visited %%diary-andrew%% 's diary". That will link it automatically to the person's diary, which saves you a bit of typing and html-using. By Andrew Smales. 12:55 a.m. - Jun. 12, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- server was down, but now it's back up A beautiful weekend is about to start, the weather is amazing and I've got an ice cream treat in the freezer that's just waiting for Trading Spaces to start so I can eat it, what does all this add up to? A server crash of course! So anyway, blah blah, yes the server was just down for almost an hour, the network place took forever to get it back up and once again I am looking into moving everything to a new network facility, for about the 1000th time. Anyway everything is back now, sorry about that. Now excuse me, I have ice cream waiting! (update: also the members area was a bit wonky for 5 minutes after i wrote this, but that's fixed too now) By Andrew Smales. 3:46 p.m. - Jun. 07, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- temporary messup on the "add an entry" screen Howdy! Okay, well 2 things: I just improved the "add an entry" stuff, but while doing so, I messed up and forgot to remove one line of code from a certain program and for about 20 minutes if you tried to add an entry it said "you're not a gold member!". I would like to hereby say I am sorry, that was a mistake and not part of some evil scheme as some people seem to have thought (that's my new motto: "I'm not evil, I'm just dumb") . Anyhow, it's fixed now, and also the whole "add an entry" thing is also quite imrpoved, in the following ways: - Now when you choose to use either the normal or weblog format, your choice is saved in the database so you don't have to switch it everytime you log in. - Some people were having trouble adding entries with the previous "add an entry" stuff (which I had changed a few weeks ago) with certain browsers that handled cookies all weird-like. This new system fixes that and you guys shouldn't have any more problems. - If you're a gold member you can now add labels to the optional fields and make the entry form say descriptive stuff instead of "optional field 1", etc. or make those fields disappear on your entry screen altogether. (Oh also, those fields show up in the "edit entries" screen properly now, and quotation marks work in them correctly now) While I'm writing, I also added a directory of surveys a day or two ago, so if you want to peruse all the different surveys people have made, check out the link near the bottom of the left hand sidebar (which is getting to be way too big, must fix that somehow!). By Andrew Smales. 7:03 p.m. - Jun. 06, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- another new feature: Surveys! Hello diary dudes and also non-dudes. I sort of feel dumb cause I wrote an entry here earlier today announcing some new features (so read the previous entry if you haven't already!!) and now I am already pushing that item down to announce another new feature. But anyhow I added a pretty big feature to the site that'll help you get to know people, and help people to get to know you. It's a feature called Surveys (making that bold really wasn't as monumental as I wanted it to be). Basically, you can fill out surveys that other users create, or make your own surveys for other people to answer*, and uh yeah, it'll be fun, a big old hoot! To give you an idea of how it works, I have prepated a short and pretty lame survey myself, click here to take it, or to just look and see what the feature is all about. And if you're a gold member, you can click here to create a better survey haha (here's a tip: think hard about your questions, if you just write a fast survey it can turn out crummy, as I have now proven! Also don't leave a zillion blank questions like I did haha). * If you're a gold member that is. This feature is sort of like diaryrings where anyone can use them but only gold members can actually create them, because they'd be too much of a load on the server otherwise. By Andrew Smales. 7:30 p.m. - Jun. 03, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 new features for gold members Howdy! I just added 2 new features for gold (and supergold) members: - You can now add a picture of yourself to your profile. This should be really neat when everyone starts doing it! Click here to do that. - For people who want to download a copy of their entire diary (for printing, etc.), you can do that here now. I've also made a bunch of other smaller changes lately that aren't worth mentioning but you might notice here and there. By Andrew Smales. 11:39 a.m. - Jun. 03, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- improvements to the comments system Howdy! I made a few much-awaited improvements to the comments system for supergold members: 1:You can now have the number of comments for a particular entry show up on the entry itself, so it'd say "15 comments so far" at the end of your entry for example, (or however you wanted it phrased) 2: You can now make it so the comments for a given entry show up at the end of the entry, instead of on a separate page Oh and there's also one other smaller thing. For all the info on how to do this, check out the new comments FAQ. By Andrew Smales. 9:16 p.m. - May. 31, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- quick update Sorry, the site has been a bit wonky today, and the buddy lists were just messed up for a few minutes. This all has to do with me doing some fixing and improvements to the way the database works, a few small and weird things went wrong while I was working on that. Anyhow, I do believe it's all working now, so yippee, and sorry about that! By Andrew Smales. 3:09 p.m. - May. 30, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- blank diary pages for about 10 minutes problem fixed Argh, I just wrote a big good explanation to post of some problems tonight and then my computer crashed. I'll add more soon, but in the meantime here is the gist: At 11:18 EST, the database server went a little bonkers (at least partly because tonight has been super super crazy busy for some reason), and a weird side effect happened: For about 10 minutes if you added an entry or updated your template, your index page went blank. I fixed it, and I'm running a program now to regenerate any indexes that are still blank, but it may take a short while. If you have a blank diary still, just add another entry (and then delete it) and that'll fix it. It's funny timing too cause I've been doing big upgrades to the database this weekend that will prevent dumb problems like this occurring, and this is the first time that something this annoying (blanking out diary pages) has actually popped up. By Andrew Smales. 12:01 a.m. - May. 21, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- some little changes for designers Hello dudes, and happy long weekend to whoever gets one, maybe it's just us in Canada. Anyhow, I made some changes that are mostly useful to people who design and give away templates (if you don't know who these people are, check beautify or get-it, they each have lists and info). Anyhow, okay so the changes are: The %%username%% symbol now works on archive pages too, it didn't before (oops), and there is a new variable you can use which is: %%buddylist%% . If you stick %%buddylist%% into your template, your buddy list will show up wherever you put it, in alphabetical order, one name per line. This saves you having to add diaries in two places anytime you find a new one you like basically, sort of handy, and also an easy way for people who don't know html too well to do it. So yeah, hope that's handy, and I may be adding some more neat variables soon (suggestions welcome). Oh also I made a new notify list for people who design diary templates to join, so I can let them know about this kind of stuff easier, as well as other info that I might not add to the news here. If you're a designer, sign up to this thing below!! By Andrew Smales. 12:40 p.m. - May. 18, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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